Share paper documents in digital clouds

Working together is essential in these digital times. After all, odds are you don’t personally possess all the expertise required to make your business a success. You need a way of sharing digital files with other professionals because collaborating with several people on a single project without physically being in the same room has all but become a prerequisite to running a successful business.

Flexibility, accessibility on multiple devices and contact with the customer to follow up the various stages of the project are the major advantages file sharing tools have to offer. The trick is to find a flexible and logical system able to handle the most common file formats. Stick to one easy-to-use standard: if the program becomes too complex some users will give up. Every day we are showered with new technology we hardly understand. Therefore it’s only logical for customers to be able to download your contribution to their project without hassle.

1. Google Docs

One of the most powerful services of Google is the widespread Drive, an easy way of storing and sharing up to 15GB of free data. In return for a small monthly fee you can have this upgraded to 100GB or even 1TB. Google Drive is extremely intuitive to use thanks to drag-and-drop technology. As an administrator you’re giving employees two options: either they can only view the files or they can also edit them.

Drive is suited to a wide variety of purposes: a file sharing service, a portfolio or convenient storage space on the go. One tip: make sure you can also edit your documents offline because that will avoid a lot of frustration in the event of an unstable internet connection.

Discover more on: docs.google.com

2. Quip

A Quip document is not something that is written by a single person and then forwarded to another. It’s a live document that centralises your teams and several people can edit it simultaneously or add comments via the chat window. Forget internal e-mail because Quip is a much faster and more direct way of communicating with each other in those locations where you effectively work together.

As the administrator you decide who gets which type of access to your documents: individuals, groups or third parties. In the latter case you can send a shareable link, as with Google Docs. Like the proverb says: Many hands make for light work, but thanks to Quip those many hands can work together in myriad ways.

Discover more on: Quip

3. Dropbox

Dropbox is exactly what the English word says: it’s a virtual box where you can drop files of any type. The box can be opened virtually by someone else to enable that person to view, edit or manipulate the files. Be careful though with the kind of authorisation you give others to mess about with files: before you know it the entire box is turned on its head and you are no longer able to find what you put in there. Keep in mind that employees have to create a Dropbox account first.

Discover more on: Dropbox

We wish you the best of luck! - (Feel free to share this article with others)